


Growth and Change

by Imaginationqueen



Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 23:27:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21400396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imaginationqueen/pseuds/Imaginationqueen
Summary: A shocking turn of events has left Yumi living at Kaddic with the rest of the team but there is no time for self pity when her roommate keeps acting so strange.Rating applies in later chapters.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don’t own Code Lyoko

**Growth and Change**

Yumi groaned as she stretched her back. The last Xana attack had been brutal and all she wanted to do was curl up in bed. She got close to her house and noticed a strange smell in the air, emergency vehicles everywhere and an eerie red glow in the evening sky. She got closer and the horror of what she saw dropped her to her knees. Her home was engulfed in flames. Her parents and brother stood outside with the emergency personnel.

“No…” tears fell unchecked down her face as she watched the fire rage on. Hiroki looked back and noticed her.

_“Mama… look"_ “Yumi…” They had been trying to reach her to tell her to stay at the school to at least spare her the horror of witnessing this, they hadn’t been able to protect Hiroki as he had been with then at a dentist appointment when it started so he had been with them when they discovered it. Her phone had died so they couldn't spare her either.

Yumi barely registered her mother's embrace.

_“It will be okay"_ her mother whispered to her in Japanese.

_“No, mama, how can it be okay? we have lost everything!“_

Anything else her parents said was lost on her as she sobbed. Hiroki was holding it together. He had his fit earlier, he wasn’t sure what they would do but he trusted his parents.

A sedan pulled up and Jean-Pierre Delmas got out. When he had gotten the phone call that the Ishiyama house had burned he had gotten to work making phone calls and securing the funds to give Yumi and Hiroki room and board for free if they would need it.

“Mr. Delmas… what are you doing here?”

“I came as soon as I heard, Mr. Ishiyama.” He said “I wanted to let you know I made some calls and I have secured the option of allowing Yumi and Hiroki to board at the school at no charge to you. I am sure the aid workers have told you that there are clothes and other necessities waiting for you to look through.”

“Thank you, one of my coworkers said we could live with him but it is too far for them to walk to school and…”

“I have everything ready… they will both have roommates their own age.”

They got some things and returned to the school. Hiroki seemed unsure about boarding, but he was okay when he realized his roommate was a friend of his.

Yumi rubbed her arms nervously. She didn’t have many friends in her own grade so she had no idea who she could be rooming with. She said goodbye to her parents and went to her room to see her roommate reading a book with Japanese writing on the front. She had been told her roommate's name was Bianca Kobayashi so the fact that she knew Japanese shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was.

“Hi" she said awkwardly.

“Oh… oh I’m so sorry.” A round face peeked out of the book. Bianca stood and Yumi figured she was about the same height as Odd.

“Welcome… I heard what happened. I’m really sorry, if you need anything just let me know.”

Yumi noticed Bianca had the same phone she did.

“Can I borrow your charger?”

“Of course, mine is fully charged.” Yumi plugged her phone in and sat on her new bed.

Bianca watched as Yumi sat awkwardly on the bed. She felt terrible for her, she couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to have lost everything but it seemed she couldn’t find the words to express her feelings.

“Do you need to work on homework or… want to grab a shower? I usually shower at night, you're more likely to have hot water. Mr. Delmas said they’re working on upgrading the water heater to one of those tankless ones that give unlimited hot water but I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Shower sounds good… but I didn’t get any soap or shampoo.”

“You can borrow mine.”

“Thanks.”

The shower felt good and Yumi was glad she had gotten such a generous roommate.

They returned to the room and Yumi was glad she hadn’t run into Aelita or Sissy on the way. Aelita would be worried and she was in no mood for a verbal jousting match with Sissy.

They started on homework and Bianca groaned. “Tomorrow is Wednesday, right?”

“Yeah… why?”

“I have tutoring tomorrow evening." “Okay.” ~*~ Meanwhile Ulrich was begging Jeremy to run a return to the past in the hope they could somehow save Yumi's house. “It wasn’t Xana… a return to the past will only mean she watches it burn again.” Jeremy pointed out logically. “I know that you hate that she’s going through this but there isn’t anything we can do.” “From what I heard her new roommate Bianca Kobayashi. She's in Yumi's class so I don’t know anything about her.” Jeremy sighed “Yeah… I guess you're right… Bianca is pretty cool from what I’ve seen. She's on the girls' soccer team.” “Okay… hopefully we can keep our secret.”

~*~

The next day was uneventful and Yumi decided living on campus wasn’t too bad. Doing her research project was going to be easy with the campus library so easy to access. She was just finishing up her paper on Bianca's computer (that she was told she could borrow) when Bianca came in from her tutoring. Instantly Yumi realized something was horribly wrong with Bianca. She seemed upset, her face was puffy and tearstained. She face planted into her bed.

_“Are you okay?”_ Yumi asked though if someone asked her why she asked in Japanese she wouldn't have been able to answer them.

_“I don’t want to talk about it.”_ She replied as she rolled over with her back to Yumi. _“Shut down the computer when you’re done.”_ Bianca didn’t say anything else after that. Yumi watched as Bianca seemingly fell asleep. She was worried about her. Something happened to her, usually, from what she had seen, Bianca was a rather cheerful person. She printed her work, shut the computer down and went to bed. She vaguely heard Bianca rummaging through her belongings and leave, she assumed to take a shower. She would have to keep an eye on Bianca, but she had a bad feeling she wasn’t going to like what she found.

**To Be Continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

Yumi sighed as she entered her math class. She didn’t like this teacher, Geoffrey Dubois, there was something about the way he looked at her that made her extremely uncomfortable but she couldn’t put her finger on why. She noticed that it seemed to be just her, well until she started paying attention to Bianca and noted he looked at her the same way. That was when she realized how predatory that look was and wondered if Jean-Pierre Delmas had seen that look yet and if he had why he hadn’t done anything about him.

~*~

Math class couldn’t end fast enough. Yumi was one of the first out the door and nearly ran into Ulrich in her mad dash to get out of there.

“Yumi… are you okay?”

“Yeah…sorry Mr. Dubois just gives me the creeps.” Yumi explained.

“How is dorm life treating you?” he asked as the walked down the hall together.

“Not too bad… I’m worried about Bianca though"

“Why?”

“She had tutorials with Mr. Dubois yesterday evening and when she came into our room afterwards she was acting really weird… she looked like she had been crying but she wouldn’t talk to me about it.”

Ulrich rolled the possibilities around in his mind and none sounded pleasant as a matter of fact they started at bad and only got worse.

“Could she have just broke up with a boyfriend or something?”

“I doubt it, but I guess its possible” Yumi didn’t think that was what had happened but didn’t want to rule it out either.

Yumi wasn’t sure if she should ask Bianca about that or not. She decided against it for the moment if it happened again after the Friday session she would say something.

~*~

“Have you picked a partner for the science project?” Bianca asked as they sat together in the bedroom in their pajamas that night. They were speaking in Japanese because Bianca wanted to practice because she felt her spoken Japanese was getting rusty with nobody else around that could converse with her in that language.

“No… why?”

“I… thought we might work together. It would make it easier to work on together since we share a room and all.”

“True.” Yumi admitted with a shrug.

That Friday Bianca came back from tutorials in just as bad a condition as she had that Wednesday but when Yumi asked her if she was okay she got the same answer which troubled Yumi greatly.

~*~

This went on for the next couple of weeks with Xana being extremely quiet. Yumi couldn’t figure out how to broach the topic with Bianca so she just kept a silent eye on the situation until a Tuesday a month after she moved in with Bianca. They had been in a rush to get to class and it was only when Yumi went to check her text messages for Xana alerts when she realized she had the wrong phone.

She knew she shouldn’t pry into Bianca's private business but she was worried about her. Yumi went into the text log and noticed a conversation between Bianca and a G. Dubois and she had a bad feeling that was their math teacher.

“I can’t do this anymore. I… I hate how I feel when it’s over. Yumi isn’t as clueless as my last roommate.” Bianca “She is going to figure it out.”

“If you can’t keep our secret you know what will happen.” Mystery man.

“Please just stop it’s been three months. Isn’t that long enough?” Bianca.

“It will be long enough when I say it has been long enough" mystery man.

Yumi was horrified as she continued to read. What trouble was Bianca in?

~*~

Meanwhile: Bianca was shocked when she got a text from a Jeremy. She then realized this must be Yumi's phone. She was at the meeting spot before she realizes the text wasn’t for her.

“You're Bianca aren’t you?”

Introductions were fast and it was only due to the trust Yumi said she had in her that she was read into the team's secrets.

They arrived and virtualized immediately. Bianca's outfit consisted of a tight, short skirt/shorts combo in black with pink trim and a wrap sports bra in black and pink with black fingerless mixed martial arts style gloves and black and pink hi-tops. Her punches worked well to destroy things she could punch and her punches sent out energy to damage what she couldn’t get close to.

The Xana attack was thwarted and after the return to the past she and Yumi switched phones with Bianca unaware that Yumi knew anything.

Yumi sat down with Ulrich and he could tell something was bothering her.

“What's wrong Yumi?” he asked.

“Bianca and I have the exact same phone… and as you know we got our phones mixed up thus she showed up for the Xana attack. I… I kind of spied into her text messages and… and I think Mr. Dubois is blackmailing her.”

“Because of what?”

“I don't know.” She sighed “I don’t know what to do either… I mean I know what I did was wrong but… I’m scared for her.”

“You just have to wait until she decides to tell you… but if it’s that bad don’t expect that to come any time soon.”

“She's terrified… I wish I could help her.”

Yumi wrung her hands. She hated feeling helpless with a passion and she felt extremely helpless at that moment.

~*~

Bianca sat looking at Yumi's bed she had come so close to telling her last roommate what was going on but she didn’t. Now she was faced with that dilemma again; could she trust Yumi not to tell anyone? Yumi had proven she was an excellent secret keeper and she trusted Yumi more than her last roommate.

“I wish I knew if telling her was the right thing.” She thought aloud.

**To Be Continued… **


	3. Chapter 3

(a/n: if it hasn't become obvious by this time any dialogue like _this_ is spoken Japanese)

Yumi had been shocked when she learned the team had welcomed Bianca into the fold, but the longer they knew her the more she realized that was a good idea. She also began to really enjoy living on campus.

“So Yumi, do you really like living here?” Jeremy asked as they all sat around his room. It was Friday so Bianca wouldn’t be around until later, if she came at all. Usually on her tutoring days she didn’t come hang out with them after she was done.

“I miss my parents but… at the same time I like living here.” Yumi replied. “Its…”

She was cut off by her phone ringing, it was Bianca.

“Hello… Bianca what’s wrong?... Our room… okay… calm down I'll be right there.”

Jeremy, Ulrich, Aelita and Odd were all on pins and needles waiting to find out what was going on.

“What’s going on?” Ulrich asked.

“I don’t know. She sounded extremely upset.”

“Go take care of this, Yumi" Ulrich said. “Remind her we're all here for her.”

“I will.”

Yumi arrived in her room to see Bianca curled up in the corner crying.

“Bianca…”

“Yumi… ”

“_What's wrong? Start at the beginning_.”

“_Remember when that science lab was messed up when someone kicked a soccer ball through the window. I kicked that ball… Mr. Dubois saw it. He told me that if Principal Delmas found out I would lose my scholarship and… and the only…_” she sniffled “_the only way he would keep it a secret is…”_

Yumi was quickly putting two and two together to come to the horrifying conclusion this was leading to. She hugged her roommate as her heart broke for her.

Bianca explained to Yumi that her tutoring sessions weren’t really tutoring but a ruse to hide that he was forcing her into an inappropriate relationship with him.

“You need to tell Principal Delmas… he will put a stop to it.”

“Yumi, what if he is right? I can’t afford to lose this scholarship!”

Yumi hugged her. This was a difficult situation and she had no idea what to do to help. She never wished for a Xana attack but today she would have given nearly anything for an attack so she could vent her frustration on his monsters.

“Please… don’t tell anyone!” she begged.

“I won't… I promise.”

~*~

Meanwhile

Ulrich looked between Odd and Jeremy once the door closed behind Yumi.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” He sighed.

“Do you have any idea what that could be about?” Jeremy asked Ulrich.

“Yumi told me some things that she found out that she really wasn’t supposed to know and I think this has something to do with that.”

“What did she find out.” Odd asked.

Aelita was listening quietly from her seat on Jeremy’s bed not sure what was going on or what to think of this situation.

“If I tell you guys this you have to promise me you won't let Yumi know I told you.”

All three promised.

“The other day Yumi and Bianca accidentally grabbed each others' phones. That is why Bianca showed up to fight Xana when you messaged Yumi.” Ulrich sighed still not sure he should be telling this. “Yumi looked into Bianca's text messages after noticing an odd message from a G. Dubois. She found a very frightening conversation there. It looked like Bianca was being blackmailed by Mr. Dubois for reasons we don’t know. I think Bianca is telling her about that.”

Jeremy looked stunned, Odd didn’t look much better and Aelita need to know what blackmail was before she understood what was going on and became almost as shocked as the rest.

“That… that doesn’t make any sense. What could he possibly have on her?” Jeremy asked.

“I don’t know and I’m pretty sure even if Yumi finds out she won't tell us.” Ulrich gave a sigh.

“Hopefully Yumi can help her.”

~*~

Yumi sighed as she was walking down the sidewalk not fully paying attention to where she was going. She gasped when she nearly ran into Mr. Delmas.

“Yumi… what is wrong, child?” he asked.

“I have a lot on my mind.” She sighed.

“What is it Yumi… perhaps I can help.”

Yumi looked away.

“I… I’m just stuck in a bad spot… I promised a friend I would keep a secret but… but I’m afraid if I sit on this secret like I told them I would they would only get hurt worse. I’m also afraid of losing their trust if I say anything.”

Jean-Pierre sighed, the scenario Yumi described was as close to a no win scenario as he had ever heard. Perhaps this friend would eventually forgive if it turned her fortunes around.

“I really don’t know how I can help you in this situation without knowing the secret but Yumi I know you well enough to know you have extremely good instincts… trust them.”

She nodded, that didn’t help but given the circumstances it was the best she could get.

~*~

She got back to her dorm that evening to see Bianca sitting with a package. Her smile was wide.

“What is that?”

“Care package from my uncle in Japan.” She grinned wider if that were possible. “Its usually full of candy we can’t get here.”

Yumi's eyes went wide. Japanese candy was something she got so rarely as to say she never got any and she knew it was good.

She opened the box and Yumi couldn’t help look inside. The relatively unassuming box was jammed full of snacks and candies, some she was familiar with, others not so much. The Baby Star Ramen at the top was something she had heard of but not tried. There were several little packs of it so she assumed Bianca was quite fond of the stuff.

“What is this?”

“You… you’ve never had Baby Star Ramen?” Bianca seemed shocked. “Here… I'll open one for us to share"

She opened the small package and held it out for Yumi to sample.

“_That is good_.”

They snacked on the fried ramen while they went through the contents of the box.

Yumi stopped at a package of grape Hi-Chews.

“_Grape flavor in Japan is unlike anywhere else on Earth_.” Bianca smiled “_and I love it_"

They stopped and looked at each other in confusion when Bianca pulled out a giftwrapped box with Yumi's name.

“_I told my uncle about you but… I didn’t expect this.”_

_“Where does he live?”_

_“Sapporo… he and my dad grew up in a small village not too far from there.” _Bianca explained handing the gift to Yumi.

Yumi opened the package and Bianca gasped.

“_Hokkaido melon cake…”_ Yumi read in confusion.

“_Those are so delicious!”_

Bianca didn’t tell Yumi that the particular brand her uncle sent was one of the more high end and expensive ones. It wasn’t the most expensive but it wasn’t the Hokkaido Melon Cake Bianca got on summer trips to Sapporo with her parents and siblings either.

Next time you talk to him thank him for me.

“_Taste it first then thanks. Trust me they are amazing.”_

Yumi was shocked at the texture and taste of the cake.

“_These are good.”_ Yumi admitted.

The evening was fun but it only postponed Yumi's facing her concerns. She knew eventually she would have to decide what to do she was just glad that day hadn’t arrived yet.

To Be Continued…


End file.
